City Records

The City’s Directory of Records is temporarily unavailable except in the form of the City’s records retention schedule, published as Schedule A, Chapter 217, of the Municipal Code. The records retention schedule describes the records of the City and sets out how long the City is required to keep records but does not indicate Personal Information Banks. The Directory of Records will be re-published in 2018 following the City’s transition to a new record keeping solution. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The City holds or has control of a wide number of records. All of these records are controlled by provincial or federal legislation.

To support and ensure an open government, City records must be stored and properly classified. Information held by the City is available to the public unless there are specific exceptions, such as protecting the privacy of individuals. We manage information to:

make sure records can be found when needed for operational, legal or financial reasons

safeguard both privacy and access to information

comply with federal and provincial laws

The City develop rules for how long records are kept. These rules are captured in the City’s records retention by-law approved by City Council.

When the time expires, City staff review the records and arrange for them to be destroyed or archived, as required by the by-law.

Some records are kept permanently by the City of Toronto Archives for public use or online. Archived records include:

those that contribute to an understanding of the City’s history

official Council and committee documents such as reports, bylaws, minutes